


love's a funny thing, you know

by bisexualklausmikaelson



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 11:52:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14448705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualklausmikaelson/pseuds/bisexualklausmikaelson
Summary: au s5 verse where Hope is mad at Klaus and accidentally turns him in to a grumpy blondish little cat, it’s safe to say that Hayley isn’t too happy with this predicament.





	love's a funny thing, you know

―

The first time she hears the meowing, Hayley dismisses it for a stray cat.

Their little apartment in good old Mystic Falls is usually nice and quiet, met with nothing but the sound of the lake water waves, small birds chirping, and the occasional light pitter patter of morning rain.

But tonight was different.

Hayley sighs at the incessant meowing. She slams her face in to her pillow, sticks some ear plugs in and tries her best to sleep.

(She really hopes that her seventeen-year-old daughter can get some rest too).

―

The second time, Hayley actually ends up seeing the cat.

She stares at it for a bit, narrowing her eyes and observing the blondish fur, those bright blue eyes, and those sharp claws and teeth. The furry feline looked…oddly familiar.

But then, it scratches at her door and she shoos it away.

Hayley Marshall really wasn’t a cat-person.

―

The third time, she notices that Hope is talking to it.

“Look, I know this isn’t convenient for either of us but,” she says, as she’s walking home from school, “You need to stop following me, you’re going to bring too much attention to yourself,” she warns, waving her finger in front of the hissing little cat.

It meows at her, and actually rolls its’ eyes.

Hayley had wanted to surprise Hope by walking home with her, but, she supposes that she herself was the one who was surprised right now.

“Hope,” the she-wolf calls out, “Why are you talking to a cat?” she asks.

Hope bites her lip, looking panicked. “No reason,” she insisted.

The cat offers Hayley a sly smirk, one that she knows all too well. It circles her again, showing a shining sharp fang…similar to a vampire’s.

“Oh my fucking God,” she shouts, jumping back a bit, “Klaus?!”

―

After many many many attempts to rationalize what was before her in her mind, Hayley almost explodes out of anger and confusion. Her daughter waves her arms in front of her, pushing her to a corner and strongly placing a firm hand on each of her shoulders.

“Mom,” she sighs, loudly. “Don’t be mad,” she orders, in her cutest, most innocent voice.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Hayley screeches, face beet red and cheeks inflamed.

Hope had only seen her mother truly angry with her a handful of times. That time she brought some vampire boy home, and that time she tried to hide the fact that she’s bisexual (and got lectured on how open-minded her mother is and how she should trust her and ―

Blah blah blah).

“I don’t know!” Hope whines, “I just, when I heard dad was back in town, I got mad because I haven’t seen him in seven years. So my magic went wack,” she mumbled, scrambling to find her words and sweating profusely. “Anyway, now he’s a cat,” she exhales, pointing at the furry feline hiding behind her legs.

Hayley shakes her head. She feels a migraine coming on as she tries to digest the idea of her baby-daddy being turned into a freaking cat. The mental gymnastics she has to jump through to make sense of any of this are so skewed that she swears that this is the work of some horrible writer.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she exclaims, “Since when can you turn people in to cats?” Hayley freaks out, spazzing a bit.

“Well, you’re the one who said that my magic is pretty mysterious,” Hope shrugs.

She looks towards Klaus the cat again, realizing that the notorious, the terrifying, the bloodthirsty Klaus Mikaelson, was now a tiny little furball. It’s like this was straight out of a bad Hollywood movie that went straight to DVD.

“Do you know how to turn him back?” The she-wolf questions, as all logic has left her brain right now.

Hope twitches, raising her brow at her mother. “Don’t you think if I knew that, I would’ve done that by now?” she says.

Hayley pauses, almost exploding.

She swears that if Klaus the cat could speak, he’d be laughing right now.

“I’m calling Freya,” she decides, finally walking back home, with Hope and that damn cat following closely behind her.

―

Much to Hayley’s dismay, Freya has no more knowledge than she does.

She apologizes a lot, and lets the mother wolf know that she’ll do as much research as she can. Whether it’s endlessly searching through Esther’s old grimoires, or calling up every other witch she can track down ― she was going to figure this out.

Hayley sighs on the other line and hangs up. The cat circles her a few times before purring slightly. She bends down in order to gently pet his head.

“Well Klaus, looks like you’re stuck like this for a while,” she announces, looking a bit sad.

He hisses at her, scratching her hand away and walking off.

She swears that this cat-version of Klaus was possibly worse than the hybrid version of him.

―

In the evening, she makes supper while Hope goes out to buy cat food.

Hayley tries to ignore the way Klaus is glaring at her, sharp sinister blue eyes and furrowed brows, and small hissing noises adorn his frame. The cat sits on her counter top while she cuts vegetables. And finally, Hayley meets his gaze.

“What do you want?” she snaps.

He points to her phone that’s sitting beside her on the counter.

“I told you, Freya doesn’t know how to fix you,” she grits between her teeth, as her chopping increases in intensity and speed.

He points to Hope’s classroom picture, sitting on the dinning table. Caroline is present beside all her students, looking as vibrant and as beautiful as ever.

“Seriously?” she throws her head back in laughter, “You wanna flirt with her in your cat form?” Hayley releases, giggling softly.

Klaus slams his paw against his forehead, swearing in his head that he’ll pull out his cat claws and give her red lines, and not the fun kind either.

“Fine, I’ll call her,” she tells him, sounding cheeky. “I’m sure she’s not interested in felines though,” she mutters, picking up her phone again.

―

In all her years of dealing with magical children, Caroline has never heard of one turning people into cats. She understands the urgency of it all, and maybe also has a certain personal interest to see the original hybrid in such an adorable little form.

When she shows up at Hayley’s, she immediately picks the cat up and stares at it for a very long time.

It gives her that signature Klaus smirk, eyes twinkling.

“Yup,” she sings, sounding chipper. “This thing is definitely the Klaus Mikaelson I know,” Caroline smiles, satisfied with what she had witnessed.

She tries her best to contact a few witches on her end, including Bonnie and her ancestors but still has no luck.

She apologizes to Hayley and promises that she’ll continue to try her best and do more research.

Hayley lets her go for now, realizing that there was no more use for her at this moment.

(She’s surprised that Klaus doesn’t make more of a fuss about Caroline’s early departure).

―

It helps her that Hope sleeps soundly with Klaus the cat by her side.

He spends a lot of time with her, playing with yarn, sitting on her head, licking her hand. She even spends all her allowance on cat toys, getting him the fanciest of fake mice, laser pointers, the most lavish pet dishes, spoiling him with lush wetfood―

Maybe she feels guilty for turning her father into this thing.

Or so Hayley assumes anyway.

She doesn’t make any efforts to separate them though, as they had a lot of catching up to do.

After all, seven years is a pretty long time to be away from someone you love.

―

The next morning, Kol is the one Hayley decides to call. With two witches on hand, she figures at least one of them must know how to fix this mess.

“You know,” Kol starts out with, slouching into his couch as he turns on the videochat feature. “Maybe it’s like when people die and their ghosts remain because they’ve left something unresolved?” he says, and he watches as Hayley rolls her eyes at him.

“You’re kidding me,” she scoffs.

“I’m completely serious,” he insists. “Maybe once Klaus resolves whatever issues he has with Hope, he’ll turn back into his grumpy old self?” Kol proposes, looking pretty confident in his assumption.

She doesn’t know what to believe at this point. But she supposes that, right now, nothing was making sense at all. “I guess it’s worth a shot,” Hayley decides on, dropping her chin on her palm. “They have been spending an awful lot of time together,” she realizes.

“There you go,” he offers. “Nothing to worry about, I’m sure this dilemma will solve itself, darling,” he assures her, looking quite relaxed.

Hayley finds that that’s the end of that conversation. She then finally notices the fact that Kol’s nails were painted bright pink with a splash of red on the centre. And she knows that, despite his undisclosed but fluid sexuality, he was still never one to wear to nail polish.

She figures that it’s all Davina’s doing, and grins widely.

“Does your wife agree with your theory?” Hayley smirks.

“Of course,” Kol agrees, as his darling wife comes home from work. “Davina’s always on my side,” he says, laughing as she greets him with a hug.

“You two saps,” Hayley giggles, feeling giddy about the happy couple. “Thanks for the help, Kol, I’ll stop bothering you now,” she jokes, while Kol waves her goodbye and kisses his wife.

She shakes her head at all the corniness and ends the call.

―

Hayley spends hours in front of the computer, trying to find everything she can about transformation and shapeshifting spells. To her dismay, the Internet gives her a bunch of fruitless results. She borrows books from Hope’s school library and rummages through them for any information on magic and spells and people turning into cats. And, for a school for supernatural beings, it sure didn’t have much knowledge about Klaus’ current predicament.

He makes his way into her room, giving her a cold stare as he sits on her bed. She collapses her head on her desk, sighing in exhaustion.

“Look, see?” she whines, pointing at all the open books scattered all over her room. “I’m trying really hard to figure this out,” she tells him, but, nonetheless, Klaus the cat just glares at her.

She gives up, dragging her head back up to stare at her computer screen.

Absentmindedly, the cat find it’s way on her lap, purring.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” She asks him.

He just stretches out, looking up at her expectantly.

Tentatively, Hayley reaches out to weave her fingers into his fur. And to her surprise, he doesn’t scratch her hand away. He is soft and warm, and makes small and content meowing noises and she moves her hand down his back.

“Fine, I’ll let it slide this time, but we both know you’re going to be embarrassed about this when you’re back to your miserable old self,” She tells him, turning her attention back to the screen while her fingers comb through Klaus’ fur.

―

A few days later, Hope comes home with a cat-leash for her father. And it sounds worse than it actually is.

She goes out to walks with him, talks to him about her life, her school, her friends, her art. All the things he’s missed out on and so much more. She talks about her favourite teacher, Alaric, who is the kindest man there. She talks about magic, about how alive it makes her feel.

And maybe, to the unsuspecting eye, she looks insane, talking to this tiny little cat.

However, Klaus appreciates these moments more than anything.

His daughter had grown up to be such an amazing young woman.

―

In the mornings, Hayley drops Hope off at school.

She spends less and less time worrying and more and more time shifting back to her normal life as a single mom. Grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry…she watches her favourite daytime television shows, gets a drink at the Mystic Grill, spends time with the locals.

When she comes home, Klaus greets her at the door, rubbing against her legs.

―

They adjust to their routine quite easily, and Hayley follows Kol’s advice through and through.

It’s been almost a month since Klaus has been a cat and she should be worried. But things are quite nice. It’s like she has part of family back. That even though that damn spell was still active, and she still couldn’t have Kol or Rebekah here (and she doesn’t even wanna think about Elijah) at least, she could still have this.

It surprises her when she enters her room and finds that the cat is lying in her bed instead of Hope’s floor. He had spent every other night there, except for tonight.

“You know,” she whispers, getting into bed next to him. “I think I like you better like this,” She smiles. “You’re so quiet,” she sighs, free from his snarky little remarks.

He doesn’t say anything and merely snuggles closer to her, folding himself in between the warmth of her arms.

“Hope’s really happy you’re here,” Hayley releases softly. And when she doesn’t hear a response, she realizes something. “You’re asleep,” she concludes.

The cat has his eyes shut, napping soundly.

“Alright,” she says, allowing the cat to sleep beside her, “Bet you can’t complain about my snoring in this form.”

(And that night, Hayley’s sleep is dreamless).

―

She wakes up to a naked man in her bed.

Her eyes fly open and instead of a small furry feline, there’s a hybrid lying there on his stomach. He stares back at her, sparkling blue eyes just the same – filled with malice and mischievousness. His blonde hair is the same as well, and his scruff is as untamed as ever, ivory skin glistening under the sunlight.

Sometimes, she thinks she forgets how beautiful of a man he truly is.

“You’re not a cat anymore.” The she-wolf says.

Klaus observes himself, lifting his arms and legs as if to make sure that his limbs were still working. “Looks like it,” he concludes.

And that’s when she remembers, he’s fucking naked.

“Oh my god,” She throws the blankets on him. “Cover that up,” Hayley orders.

He smirks, gazing down at his own bare torso and scoffing to himself.

He gives her time to gather her thoughts as she’s still utterly confused. And well, he couldn’t figure it out either. His daughter’s magic was truly beyond anyone’s comprehension. It was inexplicably brilliant, and strange, and terrifying.

“Wait, I don’t get it,” Hayley hums, with a finger to her chin. “Kol said you had to make amends to turn back,” she reminds herself.

“My brother’s been wrong before,” Klaus shrugs, sounding unbothered by this entire situation. It’s as if he’s totally aloof and uncaring about the fact that just last night, he was a damn cat.

That’s when Hayley realizes that perhaps, Hope wasn’t the one he had to make amends with.

After all, she wasn’t the only one mad at Klaus. Hayley herself was fighting with her emotions. With the years she spent explaining and defending his disappearance to their daughter. It was difficult, it made her suppress so many feelings of resentment, hurt and anger.

But now, after spending all this time with him, things were better.

Good, even.

“So,” she drawls, ending the silence between them. “Are you gunna get out of my bed anytime soon?” Hayley questions him.

“I don’t have any clothes, love,” Klaus points out the obvious, with a blank expression.

She waits for him to say something else. When he doesn’t, she takes it as permission to speak again.

“Ugh, you’re such a pain,” she sounds very annoyed, as she gets out of bed and slips into her shoes. “I’m gunna go buy you some clothes, stay in here and don’t let Hope see you,” she firmly says.

“Of course, little wolf,” he nods, compliantly.

Hayley grabs her wallet and doesn’t even bother changing out of her pink wolf pajamas. He chuckles, realizing how childish she could be sometimes. “Alright, I’ll be back in a bit,” She lets him know.

It takes him a million lifetimes to realize that she’s been here, this hole time, standing right in front of him. Looking after Hope, telling her over and over that he’s a good dad, that he loves her – that he loves ―

“Hayley,” Klaus walks towards her, grabs her by the sleeve and pulls her in for a kiss. “Thank you, for helping me,” he says, after he pulls away.

She blushes, breaking their gaze. “You’re welcome,” Hayley whispers slowly.

She leaves after that, fingers lingering on her lips.

Maybe she liked this version of Klaus better than the cat version after all.

―


End file.
